Storage systems are commonly used for a variety of purposes, such as providing multiple users with access to shared data, backing up data and others. Various forms of storage systems are used today. These forms include network attached storage (NAS) systems, storage area networks (SANs), direct attached storage (DAS) and others.
A storage system typically includes at least one computing system (may also be referred to as a “server” or “storage server”), which is a processing system configured to store and retrieve data on behalf of one or more client computing systems (“clients”) at one or more storage devices. Multiple storage systems may be provided to take over operations of a failed storage system when an error event (may also be referred to as a failover event) occurs.
Conventional systems replicate storage volumes/storage space. The replicated copies are managed by a storage system that stores a data structure for describing the replicated copies. If the storage system fails, then a failover operation is initiated. Before the new storage system can take over the failed storage system, it reads the data structure for various replicated copies. If there are a large number of replicated copies then the failover operation slows down because the new storage system has to read the data structure for all the replicated copies describing the replicated copies. Continuous efforts are being made to efficiently execute a failover operation for continued client access to storage devices.